Angled breast supporting frames

ABSTRACT

A breast supporting frame including an end portion twisted out of the normal plane thereof to an angular extent which progressively decreases from the terminal end of the frame to the inner end of said twisted portion which is located at a point spaced inwardly from the medial portion of the frame.

United stateS Patent 11 1 Schwartz 1 51 Dec. 11, 1973 [54] ANGLED BREAST SUPPORTING FRAMES 2,923,300 2/1960 Ots 128/469 75 l H b L S h 3,126,007 3/1964 Jonas l 1 F c Kew Game 3,599,643 8/1971 Schwartz H1115, 3,605,753 9/1971 Schwartz 128 476 [73] Assignee: S. & S. Industries, Inc., Bronx, N.Y. FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1221 Filed: May 15, 1972 12,978 9/1891 Great Britain 2 257 19,936 l/l890 Great Britain 2/257 [2]] Appl. No.: 253,506

Primary Examiner-Werner H. Schroeder 1521 U.S. c1. 128/476, 2/257 Y- Seidma" |51| Int. Cl A41c l/14, A4lc 1/20 1581 Field of Search 128/465, 469, 470, [571 ABSTRACT 128/471, 472, 473, 474, 476; 2/255, 257, A breast supporting frame including an end portion 258, 259; 24/262; 16/42, 121 twisted out of the normal plane thereof to an angular extent which progressively decreases from the termi- [56] References Cited 7 ml end of the frame to the inner end of said twisted UNITED STATES PATENTS portion which is located at a point spaced inwardly 3,562,802 2/1971 Avis 128 476 from the med! porno of the frame 3,184,270 3/1965 Ruhala 16/121 X 3 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures I BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the invention This invention relates generally to brassieres, and more specifically, to an improved breast supporting frame for use in such brassieres or other similarly related foundation garments. I

2. Description of the prior art Heretofore, it has been proposed toprovide brassieres having a pair of spaced breast receiving cups or pockets with arcuate, generally U-shaped supporting frames which extend along the side and bottom peripheral portions of the cups. The use of such supporting frames that form the stiffening members for the breast cups and their surrounding panel portions serves to keep the shape of that portion of the brassiere engaging with and containing the breast cups. The supporting frames further serve the purpose of supporting the brassiere to the bust of the wearer, and maintaining the wearers breasts firmly in the breast cups of the brassiere so as to minimize displacement of the breasts from the breast cups.

Originally, the supporting frames were formed of wire having a roundcross-section. However, it was found that if the round cross-section was of suitable diameter to sufficiently resist relative movement of the ends of the frame toward and away from each other and thus provide adequate support, the resistance to flexing of the arcuate frame out of its normal flat place so as to conform to the contours of the wearers body was too great, and hence resulted in discomfort to the wearer. Accordingly, it was then proposed to form each brassiere frame with a substantially rectangular crosssection having its longer dimension extending radially with respect to the curvature of the frame and thereby having a far greater degree of lateral flexibility than a round wire ofthe same cross-sectional area, while presenting at least as much resistance to movement of the ends of the frame toward and away from each other as such round wire of equal cross-sectional area.

However, even in the case of support wire frames having a rectangular cross-section, the construction of which to a certain extent reduced some ofthe discomfort to the wearer, it was found that the longitudinal tension pull on the breast frame resulting from the physical movement of the wearer effected a twisting to the frame in a lateral direction which resulted in the sharp edges or corners thereof being brought into increased pressure engagement with the body of the wearer. Further efforts were made to reduce the aforesaid discomfort to the wearer, such as by embedding the wire support frame in a suitable coating of predetermined thickness and viscosity; said encasement defining a sleeve-like member for the said sharp edges or corners of the frame which reduced the pressure discomfort to the wearer.

The present invention provides yet a further novel structural feature which su bstantially reduces the possibility of the sharp edges or corners of the frame from being brought into pressure engagement with the body of the wearer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The breast supportingframe of the present invention includes an arcuate shaped resilient wire, representing a stiffening member, preferably having a rectangular cross section to provide a pair of opposed flat surface portions. The terminal ends of the stiffening member are provided with synthetic resin tips to prevent damage to the associated garment and possible injury to the wearer thereof. I

The end portion of the stiffening member closest to the wearers arm is twisted out of the plane of the member to dispose the flat surface portions thereof at a selected angle to the plane of the remainder of the stiffening member; which angle progressively decreases from the terminal end to the inner end thereof. Furthermore, the arcuate extent of the twisted portion is such that the inner end thereof is located at a point spaced inwardly from the medial portion of the stiffening member.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved breast supporting frame which affords substantially increased comfort to the wearer of garments incorporating therein such supporting frames. A further object and feature of the present invention is to provide an improved breast support frame that is relatively simple in construction and inexpensive to manufacture.

The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the consideration of the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of an arcuate shaped breast frame constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken through line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3- is a top view thereof;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged front elevational view, partly in section,'showing one end portion thereof;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken through line 5-5 of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 4 showing another embodiment thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, particularly FIGS. 1 and 2, numeral 10 represents an arcuate generally U-shaped resilient wire breast frame representing a stiffening member 12 for the breast cups of a brassiere. The use of such stiffening members and the manner in which they are assembled in a brassiere garment are well known in the art. In the preferred embodiment, it is proposed to construct stiffening member 12 of a resilientmetal materialhaving a rectangular cross-section, as shown in FIG. 2, with the longer dimension of such cross-section extending radially of the curvature of the frame. The construction is such as to provide a pair of opposed flat surface portions 14 and 16 lying in the plane of member 12. However, it is readily apparent that other frames may be used, for example, formed of a resilient, relatively rigid plastic and/or having other cross-sectional shapes. Accordingly, the specific substance used to construct stiffening member 12 and the preferred rectangular cross-sectional shape thereof are not to be deemed limitations on the present invention.

The terminal ends of stiffening member 12 are provided with synthetic resin tips 22 to prevent the end edges from damaging the associated garment and piercing same to the injury of the wearer of such garment. in this connection, referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the end portions of stiffening member 12 are recessed to provide ends 18 of reduced cross-section having a tab or detent 20 projecting outwardly from surface portion 14. Each tip 22 has an internal area 24 suitably sized to accommodate the associated reduced end portion 18 and includes a through-opening 26 in opposed wall portions thereof. The arrangement and location is such that when end portion 18 is received within tip 22, the detent 20 projects into opening 26 in one of the wall portions of tip 22 to interlock said tip 22 to stiffening member 12. lnthis regard, tip 22 is sufficiently resilient to permit the interlocking thereof to stiffening member 12. It is to be noted that detent 20 could alternatively have been disposed .to project outwardly from surface portion 16, rather than surface portion 14, and thus be received in the opening in the other of said opposed wall portions of tip 22.

In another embodiment, reference is made to FIG. 6 wherein the ends of stiffening member 12 are provided with a notch or groove construction 28 adjacent the respective ends thereof to define head portion 30 and a reduced neck portion 32. The terminal end 34 of stiffening member 12 is of reduced cross-section, similar to end portion 18, to facilitate ease of entry into tip 22. Head portion 30 is provided with teeth 36 along opposed edge portions thereof to frictionally engage and bite into the adjacent wall portions of tip 22 to permit the interlocking thereof to stiffening member 12.

Referring more specifically to F168. 1, 2 and 3, the present invention provides for one end portion of stiffening member 12 to be twisted out of the plane of said member to dispose the flat surface portions 14 and 16 thereof at a selected angle to the plane of the remainder of the stiffening member. In this connection, it has been found only necessary to twist that one end closest to the wearers arm to achieve the desired effect of the invention for the reasons hereinafter noted.

As pointed out earlier, the physical movement of the wearer effected a twisting to'frame which resulted in the sharp edges or corners thereof being brought into increased pressure engagement with the body of the wearer. The extent of such discomfort flowing from the increased pressure was most noticeable along that portion of the stiffening member 12 which forms the outer side peripheral portions of the cups of the brassiere. The twisting structure embodied in the stiffening member of the present invention enables the flat surface portions 14 and 16 to remain in pressure contact with the body of the wearer, rather than the sharp edges or corners thereof to substantially reduce the degree of discomfort to the wearer.

More specifically, as noted in FIGS. 1 and 3, the right end portion 38 of stiffening member 12 includes a terminal end 40 wherein the flat surface portions 14, 16 thereof are disposed at an angle ranging from 30 to 90 with respect to the normal plane of the untwisted portion 42 of stiffening member 12. In the drawing, this angle is shown as being 60 for purposes of illustration; however, such angle may range within the aforesaid limits dependent on the conditions of particular use.

As further noted, the angular displacement of end portion 38 progressively decreases from terminal end 40 toward the axis YY of medial portion 43 of stiffening member 12. In the preferred embodiment, the

inner end of twisted portion 38 is located at a point spaced inwardly of and approaching the medial portion 43 having an angular location of up to 45 measured from the said axis YY of medial portion 43 of stiffening member 12. For purposes of illustration, the said point in FIG. 1 is shown as being located 30 from the said axis; however, such angle may range within the aforesaid limits dependent on the conditions of particular use.

The progressively varying angular extent to which portion 38 is twisted out of the normal plane of stiffening member 12 and the arcuate extent of the twisted portion 38 are related to the bust. size of the wearer. In this regard, the aforesaid values are substantially proportional to the bust sizes. For example, the greater the bust size, the greater the angle of twist and the greater the arcuate extent thereof.

It should also be noted that while the configuration of frame 10 is shown for the wearers left side, such concept is equally applicable for the brassiere frame for the wearers right side.

The construction as set forth hereinabove has been found to afford substantially increased comfort to the wearer of garments incorporating the novel supporting frames which form the subject of this invention.

While specific embodiments of the invention has been shown and described in detail, it will be readily understood and appreciated that various changes or modifications thereof may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A breast frame for brassieres comprising:

a. an arcuate U-shaped resilient stiffening member of rectangular cross section having opposed flat surface portions lying in the plane of the member;

b. one end portion of the stiffening member being twisted out of the plane of said member to dispose the flat surface portions thereof at an angle to the plane of said member;

c. the terminal end of said twisted one end portion di sposed at an angleranging from 0 to with respect to the plane of the stiffening member, said angle progressively decreasing from said terminal end to an inner end portion of the member; and d. the inner end of said twisted one end portion located at a point having an angular location of up to 45. m i r9s1 th ea s r lhsmsqia Portion of said stiffening member; Y 7 whereby when the stiffening member is in its assembled relation to the brassiere, the twisted one end portion of said member is located in supporting relation to the upper outer side portion of the breast of the wearer.

2. In combination with a breast frame for brassieres including an arcuate U-shaped resilient stiffening member of rectangular cross section and hollow tip members enclosing the terminal ends thereof, wherein the improvement comprises:

a. said terminal ends having a reduced width for receiving the tip members, and b. toothed means projecting laterally from the reduced width portion of said terminal ends for biting engagement with interior surface portions of said tip members, whereby when the tip members are in engaging relation with the terminal ends of the stiffening member, the reduced width of said terminal ends minimizes the extent to which the tip members project outwardly of the edges of the stiffening member.

3. The breast frame as recited in claim 1, further including tip members enclosing the ends of the stiffening member; and means to interlock the tip members to the ends of said stiffening member.

10' '1 'l i i 

1. A breast frame for brassieres comprising: a. an arcuate U-shaped resilient stiffening member of rectangular cross section having opposed flat surface portions lying in the plane of the member; b. one end portion of the stiffening member being twisted out of the plane of said member to dispose the flat surface portions thereof at an angle to the plane of said member; c. the terminal end of said twisted one end portion disposed at an angle ranging from 30* to 90* with respect to the plane of the stiffening member, said angle progressively decreasing from said terminal end to an inner end portion of the member; and d. the inner end of said twisted one end portion located at a point having an angular location of up to 45* measured from the axis of the medial portion of said stiffening member; whereby when the stiffening member is in its assembled relation to the brassiere, the twisted one end portion of said member is located in supporting relation to the upper outer side portion of the breast of the wearer.
 2. In combination with a breast frame for brassieres including an arcuate U-shaped resilient stiffening member of rectangular cross section and hollow tip members enclosing the terminal ends thereof, wherein the improvement comprises: a. said terminal ends having a reduced width for receiving the tip members, and b. toothed means projecting laterally from the reduced width portion of said terminal ends for biting engagement with interior surface portions of said tip members, whereby when the tip members are in engaging relation with the terminal ends of the stiffening member, the reduced width of said terminal ends minimizes the extent to which the tip members project outwardly of the edges of the stiffening member.
 3. The breast frame as recited in claim 1, further including tip members enclosing the ends of the stiffening member; and means to interlock the tip members to the ends of said stiffening member. 